


I'll Find You Again (Loki themed secret santa 2020)

by m0rbs



Category: MCU, Marvel, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Blood, Dark World, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Loki Whump, Marvel - Freeform, Other, Secret Santa, Stab Wound, Thor: The Dark World, Whump, brotherly bonding! yay!, mcu - Freeform, might add more chapters in the future coz i like this concept
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:48:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28331871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m0rbs/pseuds/m0rbs
Summary: This was made for @cailjei on tumblr for @worstloki's Loki themed secret santa! I had fun writing it (but it's unfortunately pretty short; I'm planning on adding more chapters in the future when I get time. Happy holidays!)Summary: Thor goes back to Svartalfheim to retrieve Loki's body, believing he deserves a proper funeral, only to find Loki alive and injured. Comfort ensues.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 109





	1. Chapter 1

Thor was beginning to feel as if he’d never find his brother. 

When he had arrived on Svartalfheim several hours before he’d called his thanks to Heimdall and then set out to look for the site the fight had been at, but everything looked the same and it seemed that finding anything in this place was nearly impossible.

He’d come here intent on finding his brother’s body (though he wouldn’t deny that he wanted to get away from Odin as well; his father’s behavior had become increasingly erratic as of late), believing that he deserved a proper funeral this time. Thor was about to give up and call for Heimdall to take him back when he abruptly spotted the familiar silhouette of the dark elves’ ship on the horizon; he immediately broke into a run at the sight and sprinted towards it as quickly as he could. 

The site of the battle was relatively the same as he had left it. The wind had swept away most of the bloodstained dust and some objects were half-buried, but the most noticeable difference was that he couldn’t see any sign of Loki anywhere.

Thor frowned and began to look around. He’d only been wandering for a matter of minutes before he abruptly tripped over something and fell-- he quickly turned to see what had tripped him, but there was… nothing there. At least not at first. 

After a moment Loki abruptly materialized where Thor was looking, tightly holding his arms over his chest. He’d been invisible.

“What the hel?!” Thor exclaimed, scrambling over and dropping back onto his knees next to his (very NOT dead, apparently) brother. “Loki?? Loki, can you hear me?”  
Loki’s blurry gaze flitted over to Thor for a moment and Thor frowned. “Can I see your-“ He looked at Loki’s arms, still held tightly over his torso. “Can I see your chest? Are you injured?” 

He reached out and gently grabbed his brother’s wrists, his face falling when he pulled them away and saw the large stab wound still in his chest, red blood contrasting against dark fabric. He knew there would be a matching wound on his back.

Thor decided to ignore the nagging voice at the back of his head repeatedly asking how Loki was alive. Making sure he stayed that way was his first priority, and judging by how quickly blood was leaking from the wound he had to act fast.

Thor took a breath and tore off two pieces of his cape as he rolled Loki slightly onto his side. “Alright, Loki,” he said softly despite the fact his brother likely couldn’t hear him very well. “I’m just going to stop the bleeding, okay? It won’t take long but it might hurt.” He hesitantly rolled up the pieces of fabric he was holding and pressed it against each wound. Loki coughed slightly and winced, trying to sit up.

“Shh, you’re fine. You’re fine; it’s already stopping, see? Your healing is already kicking in.” He pushed him back down and held the fabric there with one hand and his knee so he could use the other hand to tear a few more strips off his cape. “You’ll be back to normal in no time.”

Loki blinked rapidly and turned his gaze to Thor, seeming more focused as his healing started to take care of the wound (the fact that someone was stopping the bleeding had definitely helped quite a bit).

He squinted after a moment. “Thor-?”

“Yes, it’s me!” Thor exclaimed, practically lighting up as he pulled Loki’s jacket back and started tying the strips of fabric around his upper torso. “It’s me, Loki. You’re safe now.” 

“Why-” Loki winced as Thor tightly secured one of the strips of fabric. “Wh-Why are you-”

“I’ll explain later.” Thor took a moment to finish covering the wound with makeshift bandages before gently pulling his brother up into a sitting position and allowing himself to actually look him over. 

He was still pale, his face almost gray, but he looked marginally better than when he’d died. 

But he hadn’t died, right? He couldn’t have. He was here now. 

Thor shook the thought away and kept checking Loki over as the latter carefully watched what he was doing. He still seemed sickly too so the blade had probably had poison on it but his healing seemed to be taking care of it so he breathed a small sigh of relief.

Loki blearily looked around and Thor felt stinging behind his eyes but he quickly tried to blink it away. Loki was here now. He was fine. Thor had almost lost him, but-  
… but that was it. Thor had almost lost him.

He briskly rubbed his eyes and put his arms around Loki’s shoulders to pull him into a hug. And for once Loki didn’t try to pull away.  
“It’s alright.” Thor breathed. “I’m here now. You’re safe.”

“I know.” Loki mumbled, hesitating before letting himself bury his face in Thor’s shoulder. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing.” Thor huffed, pulling him closer and trying to ignore the mental image of Loki repeatedly apologizing as he’d slowly bled out in his arms. “You’ve apologized enough.” 

Loki leaned against him and Thor hesitantly stood up, keeping his arms tightly around Loki’s shoulders to pull him up too, as well as keep him upright. “Come now, Loki. Let’s go home.”

“What will fath- … Odin, say?” Loki asked quietly, making no move to pull away (he knew he wasn’t able to stay standing on his own).  
“I don’t care what he’ll say.” Thor leaned his head down to press a kiss to his little brother’s forehead. “You’re coming home. I won’t let him hurt you again.”  
Loki usually had trouble believing his brother’s promises but he let himself believe him this time, replaying the words in his head a few times before smiling and raising his arms to hold onto Thor.

Thor pulled him closer as he turned his face to the sky and Heimdall opened the bifrost to bring them back home.


	2. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this got angsty fast. Don't worry, it'll have a happy ending.
> 
> Long story short, Thor tries to talk to Odin about Loki's whole "I'm alive" thing, and Odin definitely doesn't take it well because he's a horrible father. Yay!

When they stepped back into the observatory Thor was shocked to see that it was already night. He knew time often passed differently in other realms (or maybe he’d simply been in svartalfheim for much longer than he’d previously thought).

Heimdall stepped forward to greet him, only to freeze when he saw Loki. Loki tried to stand up straighter but it’s rather difficult to make oneself look regal when he can’t stand on his own. Thor rolled his eyes. 

“I trust that you will not tell my father about this, Heimdall?” Thor narrowed his eyes. “I’d like to tell him myself.”

Heimdall hesitated before nodding lightly. “If that is what you wish, highness.” 

“Thank you.” Thor gathered Loki closer before briskly walking across the bridge. He allowed the sound of his reverberating footsteps on the glassy surface to fade into the background as he got lost in thought. 

How would their-  _ his  _ father react? Surely he would be happy to know his son was alive and (relatively) well? He cared about Loki. Didn’t he?

Thor snapped out of it when Loki abruptly dropped down like his legs had stopped working; Thor immediately scooped him up and pulled him close to keep him from collapsing altogether. “Loki??”

“Sorry.” Loki weakly tried to get away so he could stand again. “I- I apologize- I was-“

“It’s alright.” Thor interrupted. “I shouldn’t have made you walk for that long. I apologize.” 

Loki fell mostly silent again as Thor continued his trek towards the palace, only interjecting with the occasional “You don’t have to carry me” or “I can walk on my own.” Thor knew this wasn’t true so he didn’t put him down. 

When they finally made it back to the palace Thor ignored the various stares he got from the guards and instead marched directly to Loki’s chambers and placed him on the bed. 

Loki looked confused. “I thought we were going to the dungeons?”

“You’re not going back there. I won’t allow it.” Thor shook his head. Loki sighed, evidently too tired to argue, and melted into the pillows. Thor took the time to remove Loki’s boots (which took a while, as they had about five different buckles on them) and cover him with a quilt before leaving with a promise that he’d be back soon. 

He only allowed himself to hesitate briefly in the hallway before going towards the throne room; he couldn’t overthink this. He just had to act. … right?

Odin was still perched on his throne when Thor entered, looking over at him for a moment before beckoning with his hand for Thor to come closer. “What do you need at this hour?”

Thor heard every one of his footsteps echo around the room as he made his way to stand in front of his father, butterflies briefly fluttering in his stomach as he bowed slightly before straightening up. “I have found Loki.”

“You’ve found his body?” Odin sat up a little more. “Good. What have you done with it? I’ll dispose of it myself.”

“No, no, father, I found  _ him!” _ Thor couldn’t keep a smile from spreading across his face as he exclaimed, “he’s alive!”

But Odin did not react with the same enthusiasm. In fact, his reaction was nigh enraged. “What?!” He snapped. “Where is he?! Did you return him to the dungeons?!”

Thor skittered back. “Father, I thought you’d be happy! Your- your son is alive!”

“He is not my son!” Odin boomed, standing up. “He is not welcome here, Thor!”

“Why not?!” Thor cried. “He’s my brother! Father, please!”

“That monster is not your brother!” Odin walked forward, forcing Thor to back away, his gaze briefly flitting to where Odin was tightening his hold on gungnir. “He is the reason your mother is dead!!”

“No! Father, he didn’t know that would happen!” Thor tried to reason with him. It wasn’t working. It wasn’t  _ going _ to work. Odin was going to hurt Loki. Thor was going to break his promise. 

He stared at his father’s face for a moment before abruptly spinning around and sprinting out of the room, ignoring how Odin screamed after him to come back. Thor had friends that could help him. The warriors 3? No, no, there was no time to get them. He’d have to come back for them later. Perhaps Jane? No, wait, the first time she’d ever met Loki she’d hit him right in the face. He didn’t want them to fight.

… Stark?

He’d (for the most part) been the most reasonable member of the team, right? Surely he’d listen to Thor when he explained the situation. He would help!

Thor burst into Loki’s room and Loki jolted up, wincing as the movement likely hurt his chest; Thor apologized and picked him up as carefully as he could before running back out into the hallway and out of the palace. 

“I’m assuming the talk didn’t go well?” Loki asked shakily after getting his bearings. 

“Unfortunately not.” Thor felt that stinging behind his eyes again and didn’t bother blinking it away this time. “We’re going to Midgard.”

“Why in the nine are we going  _ there _ ??” Loki looked over at him and was startled to see tears in Thor’s eyes. 

“I have friends there. They can help us.” Thor slipped a little as he made it to the bridge but kept sprinting as soon as he regained his balance, practically tumbling into the observatory. “I need passage to midgard!!”

Heimdall sighed reluctantly and grabbed the handle of the sword. “Your father won’t be happy about this.”

“I know.” Thor held Loki closer. “Just open the bifrost, Heimdall.  _ Please.” _

Heimdall hesitated for only a moment before doing so. Thor didn’t hesitate at all before stepping through. 


	3. poptarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which tony destroys a poptart.

Tony wasn’t sure what to expect when he was called down to the lobby of the new Avengers Compound at two in the morning, but it sure as hell wasn’t Thor dragging his little brother in tow.

He tiredly blinked a few times (not that he’d been asleep; there was a new project that needed his attention) and looked them up and down, trying to ignore the slightly panicked feeling that seeing Loki had triggered. He was decidedly not in prison like Thor said he’d be.

“... You two are up late.” He finally said, tightening his grip on his coffee mug when it threatened to spill all over the front of his tank top.

“Man of iron, we require your assistance,” Thor began, ignoring the snicker that escaped Tony at the nickname. “We need somewhere to stay. If only for a few days.”

“Don’t you literally live in a palace?” Tony glanced uneasily at Loki as the latter huffed a small sigh. Jeez, the guy looked half dead. Not that that was much of a difference in appearance from how he looked during the attack on New York, though.

“I’m afraid my father wasn’t…” Thor trailed off, sparing a small look at Loki. “... We simply cannot stay on Asgard at the moment. I promise I’ll keep Loki from causing any trouble.”

God, he was so tired. Way too tired for this, anyway. Not too tired for his thoughts about the portal to cause his panic to steadily increase. Unfortunately. Maybe he could just go to his room and have a quick crisis before he passed out for the night. Yeah, that sounded good.

“Sure,” he sighed. “Yeah. Whatever. Cool. Rad.”

Thor lit up. “So, we can stay?”

“Sure, as long as he doesn’t leave your living area, okay?”

“Okay!” Thor put an arm around Loki and pulled him towards the elevator. “Thank you, man of iron!”

“Wait, hold the d--” Tony deflated slightly as the elevator doors closed. “Hold the door,” he mumbled to himself, and went to stand next to the elevator to wait for it to come back down.

… 

Tony sat himself on the balcony later that night (or early morning, depending on how you thought about it), staring into space and trying to process the events that had transpired a few hours earlier. Apart from a few crashing sounds and what Tony could have sworn was someone punching a hole in the drywall, the Odinsons had been fairly quiet since their arrival and hadn’t made any attempt to talk to Tony either.

_Fair enough,_ he thought, content not to speak to either of them. _I’m too tired for this anyway._

And that was precisely when Thor decided to show up on the balcony next to him.

“Man of iron!” Tony groaned internally. “There seems to be an issue.”

“What sort of issue? Can it wait till morning?”

“No. There’s no food in my living space. Could I go to the market in order to get some?”

Right, of course there wasn’t any food in there; Thor hadn’t visited in months. Tony sighed. “Yeah, sure, but I’m going with you. I don’t trust you to go to the store and somehow manage not to burn the whole place to the ground.”

Thor laughed (it was a very loud and booming noise and made Tony’s headache worse; if he was feeling better he probably would’ve enjoyed the god’s infectious laughter like he usually did.) “Very funny, man of iron! I assure you I will not bring any flames into the establishment. Shall we go?”

“Yeah, just lemme get a coat on.” Tony paused. “Hey, is your, uh, brother gonna be okay if you leave him here alone?”

“I am almost certain that he will not leave if that offers you any condolence!”

It really didn’t but Tony smiled anyway and pulled on his hoodie. “That’s great, Point Break. Now come on.”

“I hate that nickname,” Thor commented as Tony walked inside and they both made their way out to the car.

…

“I love Midgardian markets!” Thor’s loud voice rang out from the next aisle and Tony flinched.

The teenage cashier at one of the few registers hadn’t exactly looked thrilled when the huge guy in a cape and a dude that looked like he’d gone three weeks without sleep had walked into the store but they at least weren’t bothering the two, despite how much Thor was shouting and how much Tony likely looked like he wanted to murder someone. He really wished he was in bed right now.

“I know, bud,” he called back, pulling a few more items off the shelves and into his basket. Asgardians could eat noodles, right?

“Can we get PopTarts?” Thor asked as he came around the corner and approached Tony with a few boxes of the pastry stacked precariously in his arms. “Please?”

“Course,” Tony grunted, and tossed the boxes into his basket too.

The cashier looked relieved when Tony and Thor finally left the store a few minutes later, Thor already eating one of the PopTarts out of its bag. Tony tiredly sat down on the curb next to his car.

Thor paused before taking a seat next to him and offering the other PopTart. Tony wasn’t hungry but he took it anyway.

“Are you alright, man of iron?”

“I feel like I’m the one who should be asking you that,” Tony commented, looking over at Thor. “What the hell happened to you?”

Thor hesitated and looked back at his PopTart with disinterest. “Something… rather bad happened to Loki, I suppose. But when I brought him back home my father wasn’t as happy about it as I thought he’d be.”

Tony sat up a little straighter. “What do you mean?”

“... he nearly attacked me,” Thor confessed, carefully placing his pastry back in its bag. “He was insensible. Wouldn’t listen to me. He was just- just shouting-” 

“Hey, it’s okay.” Tony frowned. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” 

Thor’s experiences had reminded him all too much of his own dad. Thor had already told him a few things about his family in the past and, honestly? It didn’t seem that great. 

Tony’s thoughts drifted back to Howard and soon it was all his brain could focus on. Why was he like that? Why was Thor’s dad like that? What compelled parents to act so poorly towards their own kids? What-

“Man of iron, your pastry!” Thor suddenly exclaimed, and Tony blinked and looked down at his hands. He’d completely crushed the PopTart. Oops.

“Oh. I… sorry, Point Break.” Tony dropped the remains of it on the ground and stood up and they both got into the car. Thor offered Tony another PopTart. Tony still wasn’t hungry but he took it anyway.


End file.
